The presentation of the artcile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The presentation of the artcile - Essay Example First, she claims that happiness entails a personal satisfaction that stops with an individual, and even personal pleasure and joy (Wolf 633). Secondly, she argues that the majority of Americans have a differing interpretation of Declaration of Independence; could mean just pleasures of shopping and team sports. Moreover, she points out that Jefferson and other founders of America consider happiness â€Å"as a fortunate state of enfranchisement in the context of an open, just society.† (Wolf 633). The argument was derived from Greeks who considered happiness as the exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.† (Wolf 633). For instance, Jefferson argues that Americans can achieve happiness in that they can rectify or amend their constitution whenever necessary thereby, being able to secure the happiness of Americans. Wolf supports Jefferson’s interpretation of â€Å"happiness in the context of honesty, kindness, and respect for others’ personal and religious freedoms† (Wolf 633). Therefore, Wolf supports various viewpoints including Jefferson’s ideas concerning the Declaration of Independence. Her claims are based on policies of government established by the people. The people, therefore have a duty to destroy the government in case it attempts to â€Å"destroy the goals of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness† (Wolf 634). Afterwards, they can create a government that guarantees safety and good fortune. She concedes that Americans should champion for liberty by acknowledging and supporting Thomas Jefferson’s stance on Declaration of Independence which, recognizes the existence of certain unalienable human rights including â€Å"Life, Liberty, as well as Pursuit of Happiness†(Wolf 632). Such rights should be guarded by a government established by the people and failure to which, the people can â€Å"alter or abolish

The Era of Reconstruction in American History and its Aftermath Essay - 1

The Era of Reconstruction in American History and its Aftermath - Essay Example The proposal culminated in the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in America. After the demise of Abraham Lincoln, who was the champion of reconstruction, Andrew Johnson continued his policies and vowed to abolish slavery altogether and reconstruct America. Various states moved fast to institute fundamental laws that curtailed the full acquisition of the rights of slaves. Mississippi quickly instituted the anti-black codes limiting the free movement of the freed slaves (Franklin 210). The Civil Rights Act occasioned a move by the Congress further to assert the changing status of former slaves. The Civil Rights Act conferred on former slaves the right to own and transfer property and the right to equal treatment as the white Americans. However, even with the ratification of the civil rights act, the definition of a â€Å"citizen† still remained obscured. In an affirmative move, the Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1867. The fundamental aim of the 14th amendment was to confer liberty and citizenship to the freed slaves. Prior formation of the civil rights act, various states employed various attempts to limit the freedom of former slaves. For instance, Louisiana adopted the grandfather clause that only allowed men to vote if their grandfathers were eligible voters prior to the civil war. The blacks in the south responded to these limitations by the states through mass migrations to the urban northern states. However, in a tactical move to stifle the interests of freed slaves, Washington in his Atlanta Compromise asserted the need for the slaves to engage in economic production and disenfranchise from social agitation. Du Bois philosophically attacked Washington for his stance against the freed slaves. In his â€Å"the souls of Black folks,† Du Bois agitated not only for education but equal access to education for the blacks (Franklin 254). He strongly expressed

Management of Financial Resources in Coca Cola

Management of Financial Resources in Coca Cola This assignment is made as part of the course work of the subject of Management of Financial Resources, since any strategic plan for any organization consists of different aspects of the business that ranges from planning, implementation and control. Therefore management of internal and external performance of any organization is a critical part of any strategic plan. Since management of internal and external performance of organization is dependent upon the resource decisions made by top management, the resource strategies are of vital nature. This assignment will explore the various aspects of resource decision by analyzing the performance management strategy of a selected organization. In below line its has been discussed that what are the resource needs of the organization, different methods that are used to allocate, manage and control the resources within the formulation of the strategic plan. Moreover this paper also discusses the various strategies applied to identify and rectify the resource gaps. Introduction to the Organization For the understanding of the subject and for analyzing the practical implications of the theories, I have selected Pakistans leading beverage company Coca Cola Pakistan (Coke), which is a subsidiary of Coca Cola Export Corporation. While operating in highly competitive and predominant market by Pepsi, Coke have been able to give tough competition to Pepsi and gain a good market share in beverage and soft drink markets of Pakistan. Their business model is called COBO, which is an abbreviation of Company Operated Bottler Organizations. Since they are competing with a huge player in Pakistan which had a first movers advantage and they also have a different business model from their main competitor, their strategic planning is highly dependent upon the right resource management throughout the organization. With the increase in their market share and penetration, their resource planning is being more vital and critical for the achievement of their objective. Below we shall see how Coke has been able to manage their resource in relation to the theoretical background from the literature (Brown Gilbert, 2006). Resources Required within a Strategic Plan A general strategic plan for different organizations takes care of different kinds of resources, these resources ranges from financial resources, physical resources, human resources and technological resources. These resources are acquired and allocated according to different business level and organizational level strategies. These resource allocation and identification also has a direct link with overall business strategy of the firm (Grant, 2005). Here we see that overall business strategy of Coke for their Pakistan operations is cost leadership, therefore the entire resource management will revolve around this business philosophy, since every department will be working towards the same goal therefore their resource allocation will be done accordingly (Grant, 2005). Financial Resources financial resources are the backbone for any organization and should be managed carefully, as they are necessary for every kind of business operation, their timely and efficient management is vital. Coke, for its Pakistan operations are managing their financial resource with the consultation of their Asian region offices (David, 2004). These financial resources are acquired from head offices after the completion of their business plans for the year. These financial resources are acquired for marketing, research, production planning and infrastructure. Every department is required to submit their business forecast at the end of the year and then these forecasts are converted into financial forecast for the following year (David, 2004). Physical Resources physical resources include building, production plants, physical infrastructure for offices, and logistics. These resources are also vital for any business and their management has strategic importance. Since Coke is involved in FMCG business, their logistics management has a very important role to play in the overall success of their business. As competition is increasing, they have to manage their logistics to provide timely delivery to the maximum areas of the market to gain market share that is why their logistics management facilities are of the maximum importance in their entire physical resource management plan (Saloner et al., 2000). Human Resources In modern business environments, human resources are the most important resources that an organization can have, in most of the case these are the resource that can make or break the future of any organization. Therefore business companies and Coke as well put the maximum emphasis on allocating the right resources at the right time and at the job (Saloner et al., 2000). In case of Coke they have realized the importance of training and development of their sales team and other human resources, right from the hiring processes, training and development and compensation and benefits, the company does not compromise on quality and manage the resources up to the industry standards, they believe that their competitive advantage is derived from their human resources and they are the deciding factor for this (Barney, 1991). Technological Resources Whether it is high end technological industry or production set up or service industry, the importance of application of technology in unquestionable, technology application throughout the organizational processes can stand alone be a source of competitive advantage, therefore organization manage their technological resources in their strategic plan while keeping the future requirements in mind (Saloner et al., 2000). Coke, having the same vision has applied state of the art technology their business processes through an ERP system in Pakistan, where they can manage their supply chain and value chain efficiently and have an edge on their competitors. In their strategic plan, technological needs forecasting and management is of strategic importance and every short term and long term plan this factor in also kept in mind (Saloner et al., 2000). Methods of Resource Allocation Resource allocation is an important part of any strategic plan; this step is intended towards the alignment of the organizational plan and the operational plan, because without the efficient and effective resource allocation, company cannot be able to execute any strategic plan. Therefore it has been suggested by the management practitioners that organization should align the resource allocation strategy with business unit strategy and resource allocation should reflect and get inspirations from business strategy (Brown Gilbert, 2006). In below line we have discussed how our selected organization allocates the resources and what are the steps that are taken for this section of strategic planning. Planning of Resources The first step in resource management for selection organization is to plan the resources, this step includes the evaluation of current resources, Coke at the time of strategic planning, evaluates the current resources available to the organization. In this step it is checked that whether these resources are in fit with future plan. Forecasting of Resources After the making of the resources evaluation report Coke checks the strategic plan and see if the current resources will be able to achieve the goals and needs for the future requirements derived from the strategic plan of the organization (Brown Gilbert, 2006). Once it has been identified that organization will be requiring more resources for their upcoming strategic plan then the next step is to forecast the resources required to different departments and at different times for the effective implementation of the plan. In this process all the departments are required to forecast their required resources for the time period specified in the strategic plan so that budgeting of the resources can be done. Resource Allocation- The second last step for the resources management would be to budget the resources of Coke, this step involves the careful evaluation of the forecasted resources for each department and then allocating required budgets for each of them (Brown Gilbert, 2006). For example, if strategic plan requires expansion of the market by the company then may be logistics department would required more logistics to cope with the market expansion strategy of Coke. For this purpose they would be looking to have more fleets or human resources for management of logistics in the new or expanded markets. After the allocation of the budgets the resource allocation process moves to the next step that is contingency planning. Contingency Planning As Coke is operating in highly competitive environment and such competitive environments are always rapidly changing, therefore Coke has made this a practice to allocate some financial resources as part of their contingency planning so that if organization has to make some unexpected decisions then they are able to have the required financial resource. Resource Monitoring and Controlling Method As it important for Coke and any other organization to have a close look on monitoring of their resource management strategy, we have discussed below that how Coke make sure that everything is according to plan. Budget Cost Method For the better management of the resources and to eliminate the waste organization has a mechanism that manages the budgets of each of the department. As each of the department have their own budget, organization through their team heads makes sure that every activity and utilization of budget is in line with the strategic direction set in the strategic plan (Grant, 2005). For this purpose they have management committee that reviews and approves every expense and utilization of the resource, this committee makes sure that every department is using their budget in a way that their actions are in line with the strategic plan of the organization. Identification of Resource Gaps Shortage of any resources in any business units of the organization with respect to their business needs is called resources gaps. Coke for their business operations in Pakistan keep on reviewing their business needs, business plans and then indentifying the resources gaps for current and future business needs (Grant, 2005). For this purpose they review their resource management plan twice a year and then they identify any resources which are short for their current business need. Resource gaps are also found at the time of the making of strategic plan for coming years. They also fill the identified resource gaps for future and current need. Conclusion Strategic plans are at the heart of every organization, and resource management is at heart of every strategic plan, therefore for organizations to thrive in business and gain the sustainable competitive advantage it is very important to strategically manage their resource. For strategic management of the resources, organizations have to create a link between their strategic plan and their resource management plan. This way they can gain the required results from their planning and gain the competitive advantage.

One Laptop Per Child Essay

1.Why are Microsoft, Intel, and other leading for profit companies interested in low-cost computers for the developing world? In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of MIT’s Media Labs, announced the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program at the World Economic Forum. The concept was simple and appealing. Innovate a $100 laptop and distribute it to children in the developing world. No one can argue the power of getting kids access to computers/internet, and hence, access to a virtually limitless store of information, connectivity to the world and educational software. And for a technology optimist like Negroponte, the payoffs were obvious. But as the OLPC program has found out over the years, there is more to the success of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in Education, than just handing out computers to kids, and expect it to works its magic on its own. To begin with, the premises and approach of OLPC program as articulated by Negroponte are fundamentally flawed. OLPC stipulates that laptops be owned by children over the age of six rather than by schools. Efforts to reform curricula and assessment are viewed by the program as too slow or expensive, and teacher training as of limited value due to teacher absenteeism and incompetence, so laptop implementation must proceed without them. The program also believes that in the end, â€Å"the students will teach themselves on how to use the laptop. They’ll teach one another, and we have confidence in the kids’ ability to learn†. The other flaw in this program is that the poorest countries targeted by OLPC cannot afford laptop computers for all their children and would be better off building schools, training teachers, developing curricula, providing books and subsidizing attendance. No one ever understood Nicholas Negroponte’s position when it comes to the $100 Laptop/OLPC/XO. While the idea behind creating a super cheap, super durable useful computer for children in developing nations is good, Negroponte has always approached the idea as one where only he should be allowed to see that vision through. When other companies decided it might be a good idea and wanted to target that market themselves, Negroponte flipped out and started attacking them for trying to undermine his project. In order to explore One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and its mission to improve education in developing countries, it is necessary to first understand the nature of living in these countries. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes health, food, and education as basic human rights, but people living in developing countries are deprived of these seemingly simple and obvious necessities. Founder of OLPC and MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte firmly believes that education is the solution and that children are the world’s most precious natural resource. Combining these thoughts, he founded OLPC in 2005 as a response to the educational needs of children in developing countries. At the 2005 World Economic Forum, he presented that a $100 laptop in the hands of every child would empower them to learn from and to teach each other. As CTO of OLPC Mary Lou Jepsen said, the â€Å"laptop is a vehicle to transform education around the world.† In order to bring this idea to reality, OLPC set out to design a laptop that would fit in the context of the developing world. 2.Do you agree with Negroponte’s decision to partner with Microsoft? Yes, I think it is a good initiative because now that the XO laptop will be available in both Linux and Windows varieties and we can view it as an opportunity for OLPC to expand in a couple of ways. Moreover, now it will have a broader acceptance in the community and the other is to have more software and software developers available. The OLPC’s philosophy of openness is behind its decision to allow Microsoft software on the machines, but it would be hard for OLPC to say it was ‘open’ and then be closed to Microsoft. According to Negroponte, the XP announcement is the latest development in a long-running collaboration between the project and Microsoft. Microsoft was also interested in this project and was working to see if it could get Windows XP up and running on the OLPC devices. To make it work, Microsoft needed to get the operating system to boot from an SD card and to create drivers to work with OLPC’s unique features, such as its touchpad and e-book reader mode. Negroponte said the ability to run Windows is a must-have in some countries. For example, he said, Uruguay made it a requirement in its recent solicitation. Even in other countries where Windows is not required, Negroponte said compatibility with the Microsoft operating system still helps give the laptop credibility. Meanwhile, Negroponte stressed that he is not giving up on Linux and ultimately aims to deliver machines that can boot into either operating system. There’s no premeditated plan that one is going to dominate over the other because both is a very powerful option. Though, there is obviously cost issues, which is necessarily higher for Windows, because it requires more hardware than Linux. Language support is possible for any community in Linux, but in Windows it depends on the good will of Microsoft, or rather the bottom line market analysis results that Microsoft works from. But according to Negroponte, he was mainly concerned with putting as many laptops as possible in children’s hands. 3.Assess the thinking behind the â€Å"give one, get one† promotion. Do you think this is a good marketing tactic? Yes, it is a good marketing tactics but it also brought about some drawbacks with it which is inevitable. Since, OLPC initially stated that no consumer version of the XO laptop was planned. The project, however, later established a website to accept direct donations and ran a â€Å"Give 1 Get 1† (G1G1) offer starting on November 12, 2007. The offer was initially scheduled to run for only two weeks, but was extended until December 31, 2007 to meet demand. With a donation of $399 to the OLPC â€Å"Give 1 Get 1† program, donors received an XO-1 laptop of their own and OLPC sent another on their behalf to a child in a developing country. Shipments of â€Å"Get 1† laptops sent to donors were restricted to addresses within the United States, its territories, and Canada. Some 83,500 people participated in the program. Delivery of all of the G1G1 laptops was completed by April 19, 2008. Delays were blamed on order fulfillment and shipment issues both within OLPC and with the outside contractors hired to manage those aspects of the G1G1 program. According to Negroponte, the Give One, Get One project was both successful and not. It was a great success because there are 162,000 XO laptops gaining support for the project in the U.S. However, he still would like to see more sold. In order to make the project viable, Negroponte says they will need to sell about three million devices. The program also aims to lower the production cost of the laptop to the original target of $100. The OLPC program has the correct intentions, but a flawed philosophy and approach. Just deploying technology and expecting to work its magic is not the way to go. For the diffusion of the technology, it is crucial that we adopt to the local practices and constraints.

A Dangerous Method Essay

David Cronenberg’s latest film, â€Å"A Dangerous Method,† recounts the relationship between two psychiatry pioneers, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, in the early part of the 20th century. Michael Fassbender as Jung, Viggo Mortensen as Freud, and Keira Knightley as Jung’s patient and future psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein. It’s Jung around whom the story revolves, as a rising young intellect attempting to build on Freud’s fledgling theories of psychoanalysis. In Cronenberg’s version, we watch as their professional relationship evolves from student-teacher to one more like father-son, before eventually fracturing. Jung has a wife (Sarah Gadon) who spends most of the film either pregnant or lamenting that she’s popped out yet another girl. It’s a stable, normal relationship, exactly the type of thing to send a driven man like Jung into the arms of another woman. He can’t help himself, and he has a willing and ready partner in Spielrein. Knightley’s Spielrein is a patient of Jung’s during this time. See more: Satirical elements in the adventure of Huckleberry Finn essay With Spielrein’s committal and therapy sessions with Jung, she states, â€Å"I’m vile, filthy, corrupt! †, after admitting she found her father’s sexual and physical abuse arousing. The complexity of the situation is demonstrated by her academic and personal development. After an unusual on-off affair with Jung, whose disagreements with Freud are presented simultaneously, But it’s her romantic relationship with her mentor, in addition to varied professional differences, that Cronenberg tells us is at the center of Jung’s falling-out with Freud. There are reasons that doctors shouldn’t sleep with their patients, many of which surface during the course of Jung and Spielrein’s romance. As the relationship breaks down, things are further complicated by the fact that Spielrein is a psychiatric student herself, allowing her to analyze her doctor/lover right back. Spielrein eventually seeks out Freud to be her new analyst, which further poisons the Jung-Freud relationship. Sexuality issues portrayed in this film were the arousal from the beatings from her father and the affair that Spielrein was having with Jung. The beatings she first remembered started when she was four years old. Her father told her to go to this little room, then told her to take off her clothes, he then beat her. After the beating she then wet herself, and her father then beat her again for wetting. This excited her very much. After that every time she got sent to that room she got excited, then even more excited after her father beat her. She would instantly have to go masturbate after the beatings. After a little time it wasn’t just the beating that got her aroused, it was any kind of embarrassment. The more embarrassing the more excited she would become. One instance in the movie Spielrein dropped her coat on the ground, Jung picked it up and started hitting it with his cane to get the dirt off of it and she instantly needed to go back to her room because she was so excited that she needed to masturbate. The affair with Jung was of course inappropriate in many ways, but for Jung I saw it as a way to keep his life exciting. His wife always seemed to be pregnant and very low key and having the extra woman on the side kept him going. Not that it makes it okay, especially since it was clients that he was sleeping with. Even after Jung put a stop to the relationship with Spielrein, later when she came back to talk about her dissertation they then had another intimate encounter. The more Jung spoke with her, the more they explored her past with her father, and this gave Jung a better understanding of what things made her more aroused then others. At one point in the movie Spielrein is asked about her troubles sleeping at night. She explains that she feels like something is in bed with her and it felt slimy on her back. Jung then asked if she was naked, and her response was yes. He then asked if she was masturbating, and her response again was yes. This told him it wasn’t all her imagination it was also parts of her arousal while masturbating. I loved this film, I have now watched it three times. It shows how sometimes peoples pasts can really affect their daily life with something such as embarrassment, or being beaten as a child. It was very eye opening to me to see how easily Jung started sleeping with his clients, and how his wife just didn’t say much at all about the affairs. Almost like if she didn’t say anything then it didn’t make it real. The first time watching this movie I found myself on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what was going to happen next, and how they were going to deal with her outbursts and situations. I think this movie would be great for awareness, because it seemed so easy for them to go into a relationship, but really it is very wrong to become emotionally attached to a client, let alone sleep with them. I know this movie probably isn’t quite for everyone, but going into a human services field I think it would be a great movie to show in one of the many classes that regards to client and helper relationships. I found it intriguing and informational and I love building my knowledge when it comes to situations with helpers and clients.

Teaching Social Skills in Special Education

Social skills are critical for long-term success. Sometimes referred to as Emotional Intelligence, it is a combination of the ability to understand and manage ones own emotional state (Intra-personal Intelligence in Howard Gardners Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences) and the ability to understand and respond to other people. Although social skills include understanding and using social conventions, it also includes the ability to understand the Hidden Curriculum, the ways in which peers communicate and interact reciprocity, and the ability to build interpersonal relationships. Social Conventions Difficulty with social skills and deficits in social skills are found to different degrees across abilities as well as disabilities. Both children with disabilities and children from low socio-economic groups may not have an extensive understanding of social conventions and may need instruction in conventions such as: Appropriate greetings depending on relationships: i.e. peer to peer or child to adultAppropriate and polite ways to make requests (please) and express gratitude (thank you)Addressing adultsShaking handsTaking turnsSharingGiving positive feedback (praise) to peers, no put-downsCooperation Intra-Personal Social Skills, or Managing Ones Self Difficulty managing ones own emotional state, especially tantrums or aggression in response to frustration, is common in children with disabilities. Children for whom this is the primary disabling condition are often diagnosed with an emotional or behavioral disorder,  which may be designated as emotional support, severely emotionally challenged, or conduct disorder. Many children with disabilities may be less mature than their typical peers and may reflect less understanding of how to manage their own emotions. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders commonly have difficulty with emotional self-regulation and understanding emotion. Difficulty  with social situations is a component of the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders, which reflects deficits in understanding and expression of their own emotional states. Emotional Literacy needs to be explicitly taught to students, especially students with emotional and behavioral disorders and children with autism spectrum disorders. This requires teaching the ability to identify emotions by looking at faces, the ability to identify cause and effect for emotions and scenarios, and learning appropriate ways to deal with personal emotional states. Behavioral contracts are often useful tools for students with poor self-regulation skills, both to teach and self-monitor difficulty with self-regulation as well as teach and reward appropriate or replacement behavior. Inter-Personal Social Skills The ability to understand others emotional states, wants, and needs are critical not only for success in school but also success in life. It is also a quality of life issue, which will help students with and without disabilities to build relationships, find happiness, and succeed economically. It can also contribute to a positive classroom environment. Appropriate interactions: Children with disabilities, especially Autism Spectrum Disorders, often need to be taught appropriate social interactions, such as making requests, initiating interactions, sharing, exercising reciprocity (give and take), and turn taking. Teaching appropriate interactions can involve modeling, role-playing, scripting, and social narratives. Successfully learning and generalizing of appropriate interactions requires lots of practice.Understanding and building relationships: Children with disabilities often do not have the skills to initiate and sustain mutual relationships. In cases with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, they need to be explicitly taught the components of friendship or relationships. Building and Generalizing Skills Students with disabilities have problems both with acquiring and applying social skills. They need lots of practice. Successful ways to learn and generalize social skills include: Modeling: The teacher and an aide or another teacher enact the social interactions you want students to learn.Video self-modeling: You videotape the student performing the social skill with lots of prompting, and edit out the prompting to create a more seamless digital recording. This video, paired with rehearsal, will support the students effort to generalize the social skill.Cartoon strip social interactions: Introduced by Carol Gray as Comic Strip Conversations, these cartoons let your students fill in the thought and speech bubbles before they role-play a conversation. Research has shown that these are effective ways to help students build social interaction skills.Role-playing: Practice is essential for maintaining social skills. Role-playing is a great way to give students an opportunity not only to practice the skills they are learning but also to teach students to evaluate each others or their own performance of skills.

International Marketing Plan for Londons Ships - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 2910 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Level High school Did you like this example? International Marketing Plan for Londons Ships 1. Executive summary This report presents an inclusive international marketing plan which has been formulated for Londons Ships, operating in the tourism industry of the UK. The marketing plan primarily aims to generate awareness within its target market regarding the products and services offered by the enterprise. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "International Marketing Plan for Londons Ships" essay for you Create order This plan also aims to promote the historic partner museum ships with in the global tourists market. These partner museum ships are members of Londons Ships. This marketing plan is the primary plan formulated for a period of one year. The target market that has been defined by the marketing plan is formed of those people who keep keen interest in the UKs history and heritage and falls within the age bracket of 35 to 65. This target market lives in USA. The marketing plan has been designed upon carrying out an examination of the UK tourism industry. The industry has been influenced by the distressed economic condition and requires expansion with the help of the UK government. It has been further recognised that micro and macro industrial environment has the capability to impact the enterprise and its subsequent performance. The marketing plan identifies the objectives based upon which the marketing strategy and the communication channels have been proposed. This plan also ascer tains the implementation plan with identified responsibilities and time period. Furthermore it has also been postulated that the plan should be persistently monitored and assessed against the performance indicators. The key factor based upon which the plan has been proposed is the consistent monitoring and reviewing of the performance and expected outcomes of the marketing plan so that performance issues can be addressed. 2. Objectives of the enterprise 2.1. To develop and expand the business of the enterprise by means of expanding the market and develop the brand of Londons Ships. 2.2. To propagate the museum ships as esteemed members of Londons Ships as well as the heritage of the UK. 2.3. To amplify the revenues generated by the business by means of accomplishing business sustainability and subsequent expansion. 3. Assessment of the environment of the market (source: Londons Ships corporate website; Business Source Premier, 2009, case study: Londons Ships of Historic Interest Partnership) 3.1. Micro environment: Carrying out the SWOT analysis of the enterprise, it has been assessed that the strengths are representation of the company as the heritage of the UK whereas the member vessels of the enterprise are some of the famous and well known museum ships. The weaknesses of the enterprise are its dependency on the tourism industry of the UK which had directly affected the performance of the enterprise. Londons Ships lacks in adapting to the technological innovation such as e- commerce website that can facilitate the business in increasing its sales and revenues through providing information, knowledge regarding the offered products and services by the enterprise. Additionally an e- commerce business infrastructure can also provide the international tourists to do online booking, which also is the missed opportunity by the company. Thirdly the major weakness has been observed as the uncompetitive website of the company which lags far behind in providing informati on and interaction of the business with its customers and stakeholders. The opportunities that lie ahead of the business are to take advantage of the investments by means of expanding and enhancing the e- marketing and online presence. Secondly with improvements that are expected in the UK economy are also expected to influence the industrial development, hence laying positive impacts on the business growth. The threats to the enterprise are seen in the form of competitive tourism industry of the UK which has the potential of attracting new market entrants who are eager to snatch the opportunities through forming associations with existing companies and increasing their market share. Secondly the other business affiliates such as hotels, car rental service providers etc can also threaten the company through making strategic alliances with the competitors. 3.2. Macro environment: the tourism industry of the UK had got affected by the existing economic turbulence. Therefore t he tourists operators have been under constant scrutiny that whether or not these operators effectively furnish the value for money. The number of tourists visiting the UK has been declined since last nine years (Mintel Oxygen, 2009). Therefore the tourism industry is facing challenges in terms of attracting the tourists due to slow development, lower business revenues and scarcity of competent and skilled people. 3.3. It has been assessed that in order to provide efficient services by the industry, hit mandates persistent investments to be made in the development of people and the products. The tourism industry of the UK demonstrates high potential to survive even in the distressed economic situation nevertheless, significant considerations must be made by the government to promote UK tourism as one of the key economic drivers. The subsequent result of expanding the industry will be job creation within the industry, increased revenues that will be shared by the market and most importantly giving a boost and financial injection to the distressed and recovering UK economy. 4. Identification of the target market The marketing plan primarily aspires to target a single market which is USA market. Upon the effective implementation of this marketing plan, other target markets will be defined and approached. As indicated, the target market falls within age the age bracket of 35 to 65 years. The target market has been assessed to keep a keen interest in exploring the world tourists sites due to their expenditure power. A brief analysis of the USA market has been given below along with the reasons for choosing this market as the target market for the marketing plan: 4.1. PESTEL analysis of USA (USA country profile, Euromonitor International, a, b, c 2010) The political arena of the USA raises concerns due to its involvement and approach towards international politics. Within the USA the expenditure of the government on social security and Medicare contributes towards two- fifth of the spending of the federal government which has been accused of increasing with an unjustifiable rate. Th erefore due to the economic turbulence this funding has been affected which translates into instability of the USA government. The economic condition of the country appears to be distressed. Although currently the GDP seems to be stagnant, however it is expected to grow up to 3.1 per cent by the end of year 2010. The GDP is also expected to grow up to 2.6 per cent by the end of year 2011. The social landscape indicates towards a high living standard inclusive of yearly and even frequent trend of holiday making. The tourism spending has increased by the end of 2009 whereas decline in the inflation rate also indicates towards a promising picture. There has been increasing interest noted by the global tourist industry in the UK tourism industry due to increased efforts made by the local industry in increasing inbound tourism in the UK (Mintel Oxygen, 2009). Out of the most famous tourism attractions in UK are its historical buildings, museums etc. There has been an increase in in bound tourism in the UK, hence attracting the tourists from the USA market has been done because the USA is bigger market with increasing expenditure on tourism. 5. Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives have been drawn on the business objectives of the enterprise as indicated in section 2. These objectives have been set as: 5.1. To obtain a larger market share of the global market and also obtaining a larger share up to five per cent of the USA market in first year of implementation of the marketing plan. 5.2. To develop the relationship with the customers and stakeholders of the enterprise. 5.3. To develop a brand of the enterprise by means of creating an awareness of the enterprise as well as museum vessels. 6. Proposing a marketing strategy (inspired by Bangs, 2002; Chinsall, 1995). The following marketing strategy has been proposed to be adapted by the enterprise so that the defined marketing objectives can be attained: 6.1. Product: The enterprise requires developing its product and branding portfolio by increasing the quality and operational characteristics of the products and services that are being offered to the customers. It is recommended that the developed products and services should be coordinated with the needs and demands of the USA tourists. In addition to the development of the product portfolio the enterprise also requires to provide effective customer services that are designed to gain ultimate customer satisfaction. These efforts should be made in line with the brand development initiatives under taken by the management. Within the same context, introducing products such as green tourism should also be introduced that supports preserving ecology and bio- diversity. The prime objective of the developed product and brand portfolio shoul d be addressing the target market coupled with services such as loyalty scheme, extra mileage scheme, easing out the accessibility for the disabled tourists. 6.2. Price: The adapted pricing strategy of the enterprise should be a combination of competitive and premium pricing strategy. This has been proposed so that the tourists can be capable enough of spending on the tourist products and attractions with varied choices. 6.3. Place: There is an immediate requirement of the development of the e- commerce based infrastructure of the enterprise. It has been therefore suggested that Londons Ships should form strategic alliances with other tower operators to come up with competitive tourists products laden with trade discounts, competitive products etc. The development of e- commerce channel should be in line with brand development as well as creating the brand awareness of the corporation and its products and services. 6.4. Promotion: The enterprise should adapt multiple p romotional channels such as e- marketing, public relations, social networking and so forth. Most importantly the company should concentrate on making a strong and consistent presence of the company as well as expansion of e- commerce website within this regards it has been suggested that the company should make its distinction on major search engines like Yahoo, msn etc. The reason behind doing so is to generate online traffic for the company as well as including provision of shared links in coordination with other e- commerce websites / companies offering similar services and products to the customers. The company can also improve its web presence by means of including familiar key words and by means of paying a specific amount to major search engines so that the web link of Londons Ships can be sponsored and appear with the results of the search engine. This can be made possible through outsourcing a search engine placement company whose job is to generate customer awareness , increase online traffic etc. for the enterprise. Most importantly Londons Ships should adapt to the process of email marketing. An e- mail marketing campaign that is designed for generating revenues as well as retaining customers likely to provide benefits such as higher number of customers visiting the website, increased brand awareness, brand development. Further on email marketing can also benefit the company through giving a cost effective solution that is equally influential in attracting global tourists towards the UK tourism industry. Some of the compatible channels of communication of e- marketing are newsletters, brochures etc. 6.5. In addition to the above recommendations the company should also adapt to the online public relations so that the customers and stakeholders are consistently kept well informed about the company and the brand along with development of the brand in context of supporting global ecology, low carbon economy and green tourism pertaining t o bio diversity. 6.6. Most importantly the company should also strengthen its relationships with its customers and business partners so that the objectives of retaining the customers and obtaining a higher percentage of global market share can be attained. 7. Implementation plan (inspired by Kotler, 2006) Strategy- Implementation plan -Identified responsibilities -Start date-End date. Develop products portfolio and brand of the company along with creating the product and brand awareness: implying marketing and advertising channels along with branding and online public relations actions in order to promote the product portfolio. Creation of the awareness of the company and its brand should be carried out through promotion the marketing massage which is influential enough to successfully attract the customers to the member vessels of the company. Marketing manager, executive and team members September 2010-August 2011. Develop competitive and premium pricing strategy Revisions of the pricing strategy so that the company offers varied prices that cater different social classes with in the identified target market. Competitive prices can be possibly accomplished through cutting down the cost of business. In order to premium price the products, the enterprise should undertake some strategic actions such as making strategic alliances with allied services (other tour operators) so that the customers can be provided with value for their money(family packages, annual passes, fast track access etc.). Marketing manager, operations manager and their team November 2010-March 2011. Develop relationship with the stake holders Develop communication channels so that the customers and stake holders are kept well informed about the developments and activities of the company. Marketing manager, Business manager and his team October 2010-August 2011. 8. The marketing budget The desired marketing budget for this marketing plan has been assessed to be  £ 20,000 for the first year. The desired resources that should be allocated for the implementation process of this plan are human capital, financial budget, and continued support of the management as well as marketing personnel. 9. Monitoring and evaluation The evaluation of the marketing plan should be carried out against the following performance indicators as suggested by Punniyamoorthy and Murali (2008). These indicators are higher number of customers, increased brand awareness, experiencing the anticipated outcomes of marketing activities, successfully implemented competitive and premium prices paid by the customers, improved quality of customer services, higher market share etc. 10. Critical Issues (source: drawn from the case study) Londons Ships is assessed to challenge by the following critical issues which must be addressed prior to the implementation of the marketing plan that has been proposed above: 10.1. A process of consistent monitoring and reviewing should be carried out so that the marketing manager is well aware of the performance evaluation of the plan and can take corrective measures accordingly. 10.2. In addition to the implementation of the marketing plan the company should also concentrate on the development of its e- commerce infrastructure and web site so that the proposed strategies can be effectively implemented. It is also important so that the customers / foreign tourists can draw information and knowledge regarding the company and partner museum ships through the website as well as securing online purchases long before entering into the UK. 10.3. Londons Ships should also adapt to strategic business practices such as development of e- supply chain, forming strategic allianc es with business partners with an ambition of offering tourist packages etc. 10.4. In addition to above issues the management should ensure that the company is well equipped with skilled and competent personnel which is capable enough of coping with the significant changes that the company has been suggested to go through. Therefore sufficient amount of training and development needs to be provided to the people along with learning and identifying the needs and demands of the people. 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